Archived News:

Tuesday, Aug 13, 2013

Kerberos Productions officially announces Sword of the Stars: Ground Pounders,
the new turn-based wargame that was first revealed
last week. Though the
game is newly announced, a playable alpha demo is already available for download
from Gamer's Hell.
Here are a
bunch
of screenshots and here's word, which says this will show up on Kickstarter
at some point:

August 13th, 2013 – Following on the heels of their first
highly successful crowd-sourced game, The Pit, Kerberos Productions is pleased
to officially announce our next title, Sword of the Stars: Ground Pounders!
Inspired by classic wargames such as Panzer General, and steeped in the lore of
the Sword of the Stars universe, Ground Pounders offers a new generation of
gamers an updated taste of turn-based warfare!

Ground Pounders lets players control an army from one of three factions,
comprised of several dozen of types of units, lead them across a variety of
worlds, increase their experience levels and abilities over three campaigns, and
use them to unlock special action cards that can be used to add unique effects
to their single-player or cross platform multi-player battles!

The
Defiance website has details on a DLC pack called Castithan Charge
coming to Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on August 20th to the TV tie-in
MMO shooter. This brief
trailer teases the release, and they offer a feature list for the
pack:

Play as a Castithan (you can even convert your
current character if you’d like!)

Battle against the Volge in massive Siege battles

Access new Battle Arenas and earn a Castithan
Blade reward

Duel other players in best-of-three matches

Drive the Raptor Truck, Defiance’s first 4-player
vehicle

Fight with the new charge weapons, including
pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles

Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing announce that 12 vs. 12 match combat
is now live in MechWarrior Online,
their free-to-play mech game, stating they are "forever changing the way the
game is played."This video
shows the new 24-player support in action, and here's word: "VANCOUVER – August
13 , 2013 – Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing announced today that the
popular free-to-play ‘Mech combat simulator, MechWarrior Online, now features
long-awaited 12 vs. 12 match combat, forever changing the way the game is
played. The update provides fans the ability to engage in true-to-MechWarrior
combat, a crucial element of the official 1.0 launch later this summer. The
latest enhancements to the game also sees the introduction of double XP for the
first win of the day, allowing pilots to jump in and leap ahead in mastering
their Battlemech’s abilities." Continue here to read the full story.

We’re pleased to announce that Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, the
final add-on pack for Arkane Studios’ critically-acclaimed first-person action
game, is now available worldwide via Xbox LIVE (800 Microsoft Points). The
content will be available worldwide on Steam and the North America PlayStation
Store later today and on the European PlayStation Store tomorrow.

In The Brigmore Witches, you continue your journey as the legendary assassin,
Daud, and bring his twisted narrative that began with The Knife of Dunwall to a
close. After discovering the identity and intentions of Delilah, the leader of
the Brigmore Witch coven, you set out to disrupt her from completing a powerful
ritual that will spell your doom. Having already been betrayed by your
lieutenant, Billie Lurk, you must rely on feuding gang factions—the Dead Eels
and the Hatters—to negotiate your way through previously unseen districts of
Dunwall en route to Delilah’s stronghold. Regardless of the way you reach your
destination, one thing is for certain – you will finally answer for your
treacherous actions and fall before the mercy, or punishment, of the Royal
Bodyguard and Assassin, Corvo Attano. Additionally, your power, weapon and item
upgrades, Chaos level, and player actions from The Knife of Dunwall will carry
over via a compatible save file option.

Steam now offers
pre-purchases of Legend of Dungeon, the indie RPG that was
greenlit back in April. Those who
buy the roguelike-like action/RPG/brawler in advance of its newly announced
September 13th release date will get immediate access to the closed beta.
Developer Robot Loves Kitty also says they will be showing off the game at
PAX Prime at the end of this month.
Here's the quickie profile of the game: "As you journey deep into the dungeon,
you will find weapons, items, and long forgotten magic.. ..if you’re lucky, it
might help you to fight off the droves of mysterious creatures you will
encounter. There will be complete darkness to contend with, potions to quaff,
secrets to discover, traps to avoid, hats to wear, and treasure that (if you
make it out alive) will make you a legend."

StarCraft Universe has now landed
on
Kickstarter, where the team behind this modification once
known as World of
StarCraft is looking to raise $80K (thanks
Rock, Paper, Shotgun and nin). This seems to now have the full support of
Blizzard, as they describe this as a "free to play science fiction Multi-Player
Online RPG played through Battle.net on StarCraft II. (No StarCraft purchase
required)." Here's further word: "StarCraft Universe tells a story set in an
alternate reality, where the ending of StarCraft II:Wings of Liberty has a grim
conclusion for Kerrigan. Without the Queen of Blades to stop the hybrid’s
assault, the protoss are overwhelmed and defeated. In this reality, what would
the survivors of these shattered worlds do? StarCraft Universe tells this
story." Here's word on why they are seeking funding for a mod:

Upheaval
has been developing StarCraft Universe for over two years with no funding
whatsoever, donating their time and effort to its development with no monetary
reward. All developers on the project have had to return to work their normal
day jobs, dramatically hindering the progression of the project due to its time
intensive requirements.

After releasing the StarCraft Universe Beta Prologue: Chronicles of Fate to the
public, we're hoping to receive backing from the awesome StarCraft community to
push our project forward and expand the team with sufficient funds to expedite
the development process. With your help, we'll have the time, motivation, and
resources we need to put that fresh looking AAA polish on SCU and get it out to
you faster, better, and sexier.

A new video diary from
Saints Row IV takes some more of the franchise's signature crazy pills to
explain that "The Wheels of the Spaceship Go Round and Round." Here's word: "In
this exclusive look behind the scenes Jim Boone, Senior Producer, Steve Jaros,
Creative Director, and Steve Quirk, Art Director, from Volition explain how
adding superpowers opened a whole new dimension for the gameplay in Saints Row
IV while John Brunkhart, Weapons Designer and David Payne, Lead Weapons Artist,
analyze what influence @EmperorZinyak's alien invasion had on the arsenal." The
game is due in North America one week from today. Continue here to read the full story.

A
new video on IGN offers a walkthrough of the stealth experience in
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, showing some skulking around in the
assassination sequel underwater, in the shadows, behind cover, and across
rooftops. The clip includes lots of gameplay, along with narration from Ashraf
"Call Me" Ismail.

A new trailer from
Watch Dogs (Watch_Dogs) teaches us that "hacking is your weapon" in the
upcoming third-person phoner. Here's the background on what this shows us: "A
software bug led to a breakdown of services during the Northeast blackout of
2003, including communication, transportation and power. Now, 10 years later,
how much more secure are we? See the hacking features in Part 1 of the Watch
Dogs gameplay series and discover how vulnerable we are." Continue here to read the full story.

IncGamers - Credit denied: The failure of videogame news sourcing.
We are occasional perpetrators and frequent victims of this here.Eurogamer did some actual journalism and (like Videogamer, who ended up
with much the same quote)
contacted publishers SEGA for their take on the affair. What they
neglected to mention, however, is Videogamer’s original report that got this
story into the wider press in the first place. Eurogamer’s piece links only
to the 1csc.ru page, making it appear as if they just happened to be
independently reading Russian-language distribution sites a day after the
original story had spread, and then decided to ask SEGA about it. Possible.
But unlikely.

If it seems like I’m trying to single out specific sites here, that’s not
really the intent. Every gaming site in existence has been guilty of mis-crediting
sources (by accident or malicious design) at some point in the past.
IncGamers certainly isn’t immune. We’d made our share of mistakes.

But this stuff matters. It matters to readers, because if a site is
regularly failing to provide correct credit to sources it probably isn’t an
outlet you should be paying too much attention to. It suggests the writers
there are either overworked, sloppy or just don’t care. Every time it
happens, it validates the lack of trust readers place in games writing.

MMO-Champion reports that Blizzard has filed a new Trademark for
"The Dark Below," speculating this might be an expansion for World of
Warcraft or Diablo III, with one of their comments noting this seems to mesh
with a comment they made about Gamescom suggesting this is clearly
Diablo-related, while another notes that in
World of Warcraft the boss
Ozumat is the "Fiend of the Dark
Below," suggesting this is clearly Warcraft related. The two oddities we will
note is that our efforts to find this listing on the
United States Patent and Trademark
Office website were futile, as this is not one of the 89 Trademarks listed
for Blizzard in that system (our search on a different system offered to let us
buy the TM for $159.00). Also, what would seem to be an innocuous thread on this
topic was deleted
on the WoW forums, though a
long thread
remains. Thanks nin via
Massively.

Paradox announces the release of Europa Universalis IV, saying the
empire-building strategy sequel is now available worldwide for Windows, OS X,
and Linux via the digital distributors listed
on this page. A
new launch trailer
celebrates the release with a look at the Empire of Sweden, stating in the
description: "understand along with Sweden's enemies, that Moose is a dish best
served cold." A demo was released
on Steam just last
week, offering the choice of four nations in a limited
sample of the game. Here's word on the release:

NEW YORK — August 13,
2013 — Today, your dreams of leading a global empire shall lay dormant no
longer. Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio have announced the
official worldwide launch of the empire-building game Europa Universalis IV for
Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Paradox Development Studio is ready to take you to worlds both old and new in
Europa Universalis IV, and give you the chance to conquer them – if you can
withstand the double-dealing and aggression of your rivals. Europa Universalis
IV gives you control of a nation to guide it through the years and create a
dominant global empire in the Age of Discovery. The game offers unprecedented
freedom through the use of exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy to let you
rule however you see fit. Strategists will face ruthless AI in an extensive
single-player campaign, or be able to backstab friends and foes in 32-player
online matches.

Videgamer.com has word from an NVIDIA investor's call that seems to
inadvertently confirm plans for a PC edition of Grand Theft Auto V.
Here's their quote from NVIDIA senior director of investor relations Chris
Evenden: "But much of this can be better served by a tablet. In contrast, gamers
are preparing their systems for a strong roster of games coming this fall,
including blockbuster franchises, such as Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto
5 and Assassin's Creed 4."

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
website now offers a countdown with no word on what it's counting. The timer
has just under 28 hours remaining before it hits zero, so you can return there
around 2:00 pm EDT tomorrow and see what's up, or watch the seconds tick away,
like sands through an hourglass. In the meantime, they offer downloads of some
"goodies." Thanks
GameSpot. Update: Edited because "math am hard."

MCV has the reveal of Volume, a new project from Mike Bithell,
creator of Thomas Was Alone. The game will be playable at Eurogamer Expo
next month and further details will be revealed at GameCity. In the meantime
they have a teaser trailer
showing off some stealthy gameplay and thievery as well as some content
creation. They also say the announcement describes this as "Minecraft
meets Metal Gear Solid" and includes following stylized
tease:

[REDACTED] Does not kill. That would be far too easy,” the first
details read. “Instead, he commits his crimes through stealth. He sneaks, he
distracts, he avoids. He is never seen, and seldom heard. As he grows in
popularity and notoriety, so will his inventory. Blackjacks, bugles,
thunderclaps and veils are just some of the tools at [REDACTED]'s disposal.

The game will be released with hundreds of challenging and exciting
environments, but that is only the beginning. Every area of the game can be
remixed, added to and expanded upon. The community are free to take the game in
any direction they want, even releasing their own takes on the core levels. This
is a game which will evolve, warp and grow as players make their mark on
[REDACTED]'s legend./quote}

505 Games announces that PAYDAY 2 is now available in North America,
saying Starbreeze's heist game sequel is available in stores for consoles and
via Steam for Windows
PCs. Here is a batch of
new screenshots
and a launch trailer,
and word on the release:

The award-winning PAYDAY 2 casts gamers as a
member of the infamous Payday crew as they work their way through the biggest,
most elaborate heists of their careers using the all new Crime.net system,
overseen by the mysterious Bain.

Designed from the ground up to be the ultimate four player, co-operative
experience, PAYDAY 2 features four new skill trees – the charismatic Mastermind,
the heavy Enforcer, the gadget-crazy Technician and the super stealthy Ghost –
which, alongside a versatile weapon modification system and all new mask
creator, gives players the chance to live out their fantasy of being a career
criminal.

Was just raving yesterday with friends about the awesomeness that was Badger's
Star Trek script in the new Breaking Bad. Then Ant sent in a
reddit link to an
animated version of the script done by one Matt Czap. Like Skinny Pete, I
found the whole thing delightful.